The United States' top intelligence agency, Federal Bureau of
Investigations (FBI) says that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) is the most dangerous and deadly extremist organization in the
world. The official website of FBI in its tops story said that LTTE is
far more dangerous terrorists outfit than al Queda, Hezbullah or even
HAMAS. Read more...

Time to knock the bottom
off

Why the 13th Amendment should be
repealed

By Gunadasa Amarasekera, President,
Patriotic National Movement (PNM)

The Agreement Prof. G. L.
Peiris has signed with India on behalf of the Sri Lankan Government has once
again brought up the issue of the 13th Amendment to the fore and created a
situation wherein we will have to decide whether we are to implement it fully,
amend it, or repeal it totally. We seem to have reached a crisis situation with
very little chance to play around. No hedging or prevarication appears to be
feasible.

Before presenting our views as to what needs to be done regarding
the 13th Amendment it may be useful to understand briefly how we reached this
crisis situation.

In 1987, when the Indo-Sri Lankan accord was signed paving
the way for the 13th Amendment and the Provincial Councils Bill, what motivated
India to do so was very clear. No better proof of it is needed than the
statement made by Rajiv Gandhi in Chennai on his way here to sign that accord.
“Sri Lanka like Bhutan will be within our orbit,” was what Rajiv Gandhi told the
Tamil Nadu MPs who had gathered there.

Indira Gandhi selected Prabhakaran to
achieve this aim taking him to be a puppet that could be manipulated. Little did
she realise that he was no puppet, but a man with a mind of his own, and a
vision of his own, with a dream of a greater Eelam, a Dravidasthan at a future
date. He was not prepared the toe the Indian line. That sad realisation with the
passage of time, coupled with the failure of the IPKF, and the dissolution of
the Provincial government of Vardharaja Perumal made India realize that it
should lie low, neither helping, nor hindering us to destroy Prabhakaran. That
non interference in the last stage was in self interest.

No sooner was
Prabhakaran removed from the scene than India started its old game. Before the
lapse of even two days and even before rigor mortis had set in upon Prabhakaran,
an Indian emissary was sent here to remind us about the 13th Amendment. That was
in May 2009. Since then all those politicians, all those top bureaucrats who
came here had only one thing to say - implement the 13th Amendment. We were
reminded that it was the sacred duty on our part to abide by this new amendment,
forgetting the unholy way in which it was introduced.

However their demand
was not heeded by President Rajapaksa. One year passed; there was all talk and
promises but no action. By May 2010 India was becoming desperate. So were those
new found allies, Ban Ki-moon and his masters. Probably they all realised that
this was the last chance. Mahinda Rajapaksa was all out to develop the North and
the East and was fast winning over the hearts and minds of those poor Tamil
masses, leaving no room to the separatists, and their backers.

Time was ripe
for a new modus operandi. Moon had quietly initiated the first step in that
direction, unnoticed by those erstwhile advisors and pundits. In the bonhomie
following his visit just three days after the defeat of the terrorist outfit,
Moon saw to it that Mahinda Rajapaksa puts his signature to an agreement to
initiate an accountability process for addressing violations of Human Rights.
How this had been twisted to suit Ban Ki-moon’s agenda has been pointed out by
Parakrama Karunratne, in his article ‘Moon Panel Report and some aspects’.

The Sri Lankan Government cannot be pardoned for both agreeing to such a
proposal as well as for appointing the LLRC, which was interpreted by our
enemies to their advantage, as an admission of guilt on our part. There was no
hurry at all to appoint such a Commission, unless the government was naďve
enough to believe that such actions would convince Moon and his masters about
our innocence. Or it may even be political cunning of a low level, good enough
for the local audience but not at the Moon level.

One more year was granted
to carry out the wishes of India and the Western powers which, over the years
had become identical. They had to be identical since they had come together to
face a common enemy - China, towards whom we were perceived to be tilting. By
June 2010 both camps were becoming desperate and restless.

In 1987 when the
NGO cabal was crying from rooftops going all out to prove that Prabhakaran’s
terrorism was ethnic in origin - a result of ethnic discrimination, and the
government was going after peace talks, I brought out a collection of essays
(Ganadura Mediyama which I understand had been translated by the Indian High
Commission) where I pointed out that it had nothing to do with a so-called
ethnic problem, but was the outcome of a conspiracy by the Western powers, and a
counter conspiracy by India.

What I pointed out at that time has to be
revised. The word ‘counter’ will have to be replaced by ‘joint.’ By now it is
clear as daylight, that it is a conspiracy hatched together and executed
severally and jointly by India and the West. Izeth Hussein, a perceptive
political analyst has seen through this. Of course with his penchant for
devolution he comes out with his pet solution - implement the 13th Amendment. He
even points out that it will circumvent the need for an international commission
which will be a long drawn out procedure!

He with his long experience as an
ambassador and his intimate knowledge of the Indian diplomats, warns us that it
may end up in a Cyprus type of solution, unless we take his advice seriously. It
is time Izeth Hussein realise that we have faced innumerable times this kind of
Cyprus type solution in our long history. The difference Hussein, between those
Indian diplomats and ours, is that though both are English speaking, they are
not English speaking pariahs. Macaulay succeeded not in India, but here in this
country.

Moon’s expert panel was the contribution made by the West - UK,
Europe to this joint conspiracy. Moon selected the right people, friends of the
Tigers, and enemies of Sri Lanka to come out with a report - a highly
imaginative piece of fiction which deserves the Booker prize or even the Noble
prize - if we are to go by the quality of the works that have been selected for
it in recent years.

Well, it has served its purpose. It has provided the
necessary ammunition to our enemies to intimidate us, with threats of hauling
our President and others before the International Criminal Court. While the
Western powers are threatening in this manner, India making no mention of this
report, neither endorsing it, nor rejecting it provides us with a safety valve -
the 13th Amendment. The Brahmins of Indian diplomacy, as pointed out by Izeth
Hussein are certainly a clever lot. They have never pointed out their insistence
to implement the 13th Amendment as having anything to do with Moon’s report.
These are two independent phenomena with nothing in common but have become
coterminous due to sheer fortuitous circumstances!

There is no need to go
into the 13th Amendment, how it was forced down our throats, etc. But what
surprises me is how we have over the years, come to accept it without a whimper,
how we accept the canard that its legality should not be challenged, how it has
come to be sacrosanct in the eyes of the people. We have forgotten the sordid
details of its imposition, the low down tactics used, the blatant lies uttered,
and how the entire nation was deceived and disgraced by a cunning old fox.

We have since then acted like the proverbial villager, who cries ‘kanawo,
kanawo’ after having got a cobra in his sarong. With the passage of time the
cries have become less loud, and we have come to live with the cobra. However
now with G. L. Peiris’ obeisance to the creators of this cobra, it looks that it
is ready for a final fatal attack. There seems to be very little chance of
escape. We will have either to kill the cobra, or get killed by it.

The
Sunday Island of 22nd May carried an article by a special correspondent-“India
must stop interfering in our affairs in her own interest” - which is very
relevant to the situation we are facing at the moment. It’s one of those few
sensible articles to have appeared in the recent past. What he says needs to be
taken seriously.

“We must amend or repeal the 13th Amendment, whatever India
and the Sambandans say. The 13th Amendment must be amended now, without further
excuses or delay. The government has the majority to do so, and should make the
transfer of power to the people at village, division, district and provincial
level an absolute reality; the principle of subsidiarity.”

While endorsing
wholeheartedly his suggestion, I cannot help feeling of having been let down, by
the manner the government has responded to the immense faith placed in it by the
people of this country. The President was bestowed absolute power, not once but
twice. It was not meant for indulging in political cunning but to take the
necessary measures, such as holding a referendum with a view to getting rid of
this disgraceful amendment. That should have been the first act.

At this
point it would be worthwhile to dig up and dissect this piece of legislation
which has been taken for granted. We have done this in the report of the
National Revival Commission sponsored by the PNM which was totally ignored by
the powers that be (Probably as a result of having allowed the euphoria of
victory go to their heads). This report was by Justice Rajah Wanasundera who was
a member of that panel that was entrusted with finding out the legality of this
amendment. He has discussed this aspect at great length in this National Revival
Commission report.

It is not possible to present the entire argument. However
a few quotations will help the reader to understand the raison d etre on which
he had based his conclusions.

“So in the result of the nine judges eight
judges of the Court were equally divided four to four. The operative judgment
constituting the decision of the Court hangs on Justice Ranasinghe’s judgment.
At a public ceremony soon after the judgment some persons alleged that Justice
Ranasinghe voted for both sides. There is some truth in this because Justice
Ranasinghe’s judgment shows hesitancy, a lack of elaboration and divided views.
His reasoning is convoluted and complicated and hangs the issue in
doubt.”(Justice Ranasinghe was made the Chief Justice soon after.)

“So
in the result five judges held that the Bills were unconstitutional with Justice
Ranasinghe objecting to Article 154G(2) (b) and (3) (b). These five judges also
held that the Provincial Councils Bill will also have to be considered only
after the first Bill has been duly passed. “So in the final result the Bills
were finally not approved and their unconstitutionality was upheld by a majority
of the judges. “Once a Bill is referred to the Supreme Court, the Supreme
Court’s decision is binding and must be complied with. In this case the majority
in the Supreme Court held that the 13th Amendment was not
constitutional.

“The Bills however were presented directly to Parliament
bypassing the Supreme Court. The Bills that were then taken up for debate were
identical with the previous Bills.

“Thus the introduction of the Bills in the
original form direct to Parliament was a complete violation of the
Constitution

“However in this instance the UNP government‘s leading
protagonist Honourable Athulathmudali bulldozed his way through Parliament with
a number of misleading statements, or trying to mystify the House by his verbal
dexterity. He misled Parliament by leaving the issue of referendum in doubt till
the last moment. At that stage, at the last moment, he moved an amendment to the
provisions of the 13th Amendment and got it passed with only a two-thirds
majority. This procedure was totally illegal and violating a number of
constitutional provisions.”

Justice Wanasundara ends his summing up invoking
the Parliament to take up this matter at a future date.

“It would appear that
Parliament itself is not precluded or prevented from reopening this issue and
taking such actions as necessary which may be warranted by the facts.

“If
Parliament wishes to review this matter it can pass a declaratory law
invalidating these Bills. If the speaker were to give his required certificate
this would foreclose the issue and constitute a final disposal to prevent any
future agitation in this matter. The effect of the action proposed above would
be to declare and render the 13th Amendment and the Provincial Council’s bills
null and void, and to excise them from the Constitution so that Parliament would
now be enabled to write on a clean slate.”

I think the time has come for us
to take up this matter, which should be an all out cleansing process with no
repetition of amendments - amendment to the 13th Amendment, etc. The basis for
the diabolical devolution doctrine must be destroyed once and for all. The
bottom must be knocked out.

The devotees of devolution amidst us, I find are
of the view that since repealing the 13th Amendment would impinge on the
domestic politics of India, which is bound up with Tamil Nadu politics, it
should not be touched; we have no right to desecrate what has been consecrated
by our lord and master. We will incur his wrath. We will have to face dire
consequences. We will have to face another parippu dropping episode.

We could
not have survived for 2,000 years if we had acted with this mind set. Let me
remind those devotees, that we are still not another state of India. We are not
bound to work for the greater good of India, sacrificing our interests, nay our
survival.

It is for the patriotic forces to rise up and get the government to
hold a referendum immediately, to get the people’s approval to discard this
abominable piece of legislation. It is a matter of restoring the dignity and
honour of the nation. No more prevarication, or political cunning is to be
tolerated.

What is really happening
in Sri Lanka today is that a blood thirsty racist group led by
some misled Tamils called LTTE is terrorizing against the Government
of Sri Lanka and its people irrespective of their ethnicity with an
intention of carving out a separate state. There is no conflict as
such between Sinhalese and Tamil communities in Sri Lanka. In fact,
the majority of the Tamil community lives in peace and harmony among
the Sinhalese population through out the country apart from the
Northern part of Sri Lanka. The entire Sinhalese and the Muslims
population who lived in the Northern area for centuries were either
killed or chased away completely by the LTTE Tamil Tiger terrorists.
At the moment, not a single Sinhalese or Muslim is living in Jaffna,
but, many thousands of Tamils are living in Colombo in peace with
the other communities. Based on 2001 census, the Tamil population in
Colombo district is 12.1% (see
2001 census). So, who is discriminated ? Tamils or Sinhalese? Do
you need more evidence ?

The United States' top intelligence
agency, Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) says that the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is the most dangerous and deadly extremist organization in the
world. The official website of FBI in its tops story said that LTTE is far more
dangerous terrorists outfit than al Queda, Hezbullah or even HAMAS.
Read more...